HamdiR HTC One Semi Review, vs HTC One X - extras: Double Flip Cover & Media Link HD
This is my semi review for the HTC One
Batch Date: HT33W, Made in Taiwan 28th of March
Firmware: 1.28.401.7
Region: EMEA, French unlocked unit
update: HTC just issued a statement about an upcoming update dealing with few camera issues mentioned in the review
HTC One updated with camera enhancement suite and more in Europe (1.29.401.13)
• Noise reduction in slow motion movie capture
• Improved color reproduction and dynamic range (reduced over-exposure in non-HDR images) in certain conditions
• Fix to display correct ISO in EXIF information when ISO settings are manually changed by the user
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Click to collapse
This device is still not widely available in my country, given that we still don't have official HTC presence in Lebanon it's up to sub dealers to import HTC devices, some of which are registered with HTC, the device can be purchased for around 1100$ which is a crazy price at the moment, my cousin bought the device along with the media link and double flip cover accessories and i was able to spend some quality time with the device.
Design and Build quality: Pristine and Flawless
The device finish is exquisite, the metal parts are laser cut to perfection and the injected plastic bands are completely flush with the device, both the plastic parts and metallic back plate are "one" piece they are cut and molded together hence a zero gap uni-body shell, the independent frontal metallic speaker covers are perfectly flush as well, unlike some reported early cases of misalignment or gaps, this more recent unit had an almost zero gap speakers covers, you can visually identify its not as microscopic zero gap as the unibody shell but both covers are so rigid and tightly fit there are no gaps, no overhangs, the screen and its metallic protection sides are also perfectly fit and finished
Curiously it has a French warning sticker about speakers' loudness
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The white plastic band had no imperfections to the USB or earphone ports however you can detect some micro imperfections to the interior of the earphone port and the SIM tray hole, i have to say without close inspection this can not be seen from any distance and returning such a device on this account is just being bitter
The volume button looks and feel like a brushed metal but i actually suspect its plastic with metallic finish
Unlike what you would assume from online photos, the device physically looks very different than the iPhone, it looks much slimmer due to the tapered sides, the mixture of black screen glass and metallic sides plus silver metal plates and white plastic inserts gives a very polarizing effect, it actually feels more male than you would imagine, the aluminum parts project a more premium metal feel, in other words the device has a machinery stainless steel feel due to the beveled machined metal parts, combine all this with the slim profile and the resulting look is a very sleek yet bold and edgy
In terms of ergonomics the moment you hold the device you are surprised by how well it slips into the palm of your hand, it holds very well, I commend them for not going with a bigger screen since due to the extra speakers space the device lost a little percentage of it's one hand usability coming from the One X, the screen is very comfortable to use however and i found it still manageable with one hand, the device is just barely bigger than the One X as I was able to fit it in the same tight pouch I use for my One X
I found reports of a slippery finish surprising since the device was really easy to juggle around even when rotating it constantly for the different tests I've done, perhaps it's a different story for sweaty hands or black finish?
Speaking of black finish, I recommend going with the genuinely colored silver version, I can see the One is clearly not itself in any other color
In terms of durability, we have to remember this is not really rugged device, with such pristine metallic finish, it's not hard to imagine how easy it would be ruined with one drop, I am not talking about breaking the device but actually dents to the fit and finish will clearly go less easy than it does on the single piece single colored One X, any sort of protection is highly recommend, I would go with a transparent slim cover or simply a pouch so i can both enjoy the design while protecting the device.
Screen: 4.7" 1080p 468ppi screen Laminated and Bright as the One X
The screen like the One X before it is laminated to the glass, there is no air between the glass and LCD, hence it appears floating on the surface, a laminated screen would not suffer from the old dust under screen concerns
Within the first few moments of use you realize the famed 720p screen on the One X is now outdated, its hard to describe, the difference isn't so obvious but for me I was always able to detect density when reading in low light, not anymore! pixel density eye detection on a phone is now history, the screen is sharp and pristine, a perfect reflection of the sleek device design and build material
I actually found the color accuracy on the One a little better than the One X, yes it's clearly a cooler calibration but in actual use it was obviously whiter than the warm saturated One X screen (again perhaps due to my low light environment), it was also a little less saturated which is a good thing in terms of Apple like accuracy but might disappoint saturation lovers
The full brightness on both devices was surprisingly a match, i couldn't tell any difference between brightness, blacks and view angles as you can see in this photo taken by a Desire SV
One thing was clear however especially in view angles, the One screen had little more glass reflections, this is why it appears to have darker view angles in some photos which is not the real case, I assume it would perform slightly less in outdoor visibility than the One X
A reminder: As reported by Anandtech, OEMs are known to use different panel sources which can differ in calibration, it's also worth noting the HTC One is using a sort of dynamic contrast which might influence white point tests.
Audio Quality: "BoomSound" Stereo speakers and HDR sound recording
This part will not take a long write to describe, the speakers on the HTC One are beyond anything you have experienced on a mobile device, it's not the loudness or actual deep bass but the quality of the output, its crystal clear you simply can not fail to notice how clear and crisp it sounds whenever an audio plays even the tiniest of notifications tons or how clean it remains with the loudest of music, one thing to note however is that Beats audio is enabled by default, when disabled the sound quality is significantly worse, it's good know HTC finally made real use of it's Beats deal, whether its by HW alone or SW as well is not clear (it might still be a counter trick just to emphasis the importance of beats branding)
What's even more impressive is audio recording quality, just phenomenal, I tried two tests:
- First is recording straight from TV, the results were excellent, crisp but not very loud due to the distance from TV
- The second is re-recording the audio captured by the One from this video while playing on my One X! very impressive, it played back almost as crisp as we have it on youtube (I will upload this test once i get the chance)
There was some kind of low a frequency hiss with these video in their playback on the One but not nearly as audible when those same videos played back on the One X, my guess is that this noise was being exaggerated by the BoomSound speakers, I didn't get the chance to try disabling Beats during playback which might resolve this issue
Unfortunately I also had no chance to test earphones performance, this will have to go till my my next time with the device
Video Recording: 1080p at 20MB per second
The default video quality was excellent, it recorded 1080p video at constant 20Mbps, Anandtech noted this is the maximum ability of the s600 SOC, the resulting one minute H264 mp4 file was 150MB, and as reviews has stated optical stability during video recording is impressive as well, I was doing tests in indoor low light and colors were an accurate reflection of the real scene, much better than the redness of the One X during low light, the video runs at locked 30fps which is very impressive considering the One X video lag in low light
Unfortunately the same can not be said about both slow motion and 60fps modes while both modes functioned probably in terms of frame rate the image quality was very bad, HDR however was a mixed bag it actually works, dynamic range and especially colors are much improved but in my low light environment there was some strange flickers, I expect this mode to work better during daylight, the good news encoding in HDR mode is as good as the standard mode, the following screenshots will tell the story:
Standard mode, 30fps(indoor low light), 1920x1080, 20Mbps
HDR mode, 29fps(indoor low light), 1920x1080, 19Mbps
Slow motion mode, 24fps(indoor low light), 768x432, 2.5Mbps
60fps mode, 43fps(indoor low light), 1280x720, 8.5Mbps
Download full size screenshots
Ultrapixel Camera: 4MP 4µm F2.0 wide angle, aka Advanced Night Vision Goggles
As we've observed in the photo thread, the default camera settings had two slight issues: aggressive digital sharpness and lack of contrast due to the brightness loving (2.0µm x 2.0µm) sensor, thankfully both are within our control due to the honestly deep options in the camera UI, sharpness can be reduced by setting it to -1 or -2 for disabled while contrast can be boosted in few ways like setting contrast to +1, exposure to -1, apply auto enhance from gallery > edit > effects (you can also drag the preset to customize it) or third party apps
Again my environment was low light indoor, so i was only able to test it within this context and compare it with the 8MP (1.0µm x 1.0µm) F2.0 One X, in general I still found results to be only missing a little contrast punch and naturally based on my own recommendation I reduced sharpness to -1 on all the shots
Here I found all the tweaked results better than the default settings, low light color capture was a lot better than the redness on the One X, in terms of 1:1 detail the 4MP results were clearly better than the noisy One X results:
There are four One vs two One X samples in this comparison
The One X is weak in it's low light default capture, but it's still F2.0, there is a special mode on the One X allowing for great low light capability and that is HDR + Auto flash, the same mode can be used on the One, it captures three shots along with two quick flashes for combined HDR exposures without tinting the colors, the One HDR capture is dramatically faster than the One X, sometimes you don't even see the "processing" notification, this means HDR results form the One have a tremendously less chance of blurring than the One X, as you can see it's almost night vision:
There are three One vs three One X samples in this comparison
There are four One vs two One X samples in this comparison
There is something very odd about the first standard results, first in this dark white scene the automatic camera settings struggled, I could clearly see it in the view finder as it's struggling to setup, the first shot is the one above (exposure 1/7 ISO 1922) the second capture (not displayed above) was weirder it used exposure 1/30 ISO 235, the results were noise free but curiously low ISO seems to apply more aggressive detail smudging, more about this later
In the following I attempt again to tweak camera settings in order to boost contrast:
It seems contrast +1 and auto enhance can often achieve similar results, sadly it sometime feels too harsh, a middle ground would be more ideal like auto enhance from perfectly clear app, examples here
In conclusion contrast + 0.5 would have been ideal
Comparing 1:1 Detail:
HTC One, ISO-193, 4MP 1:1
HTC One X, ISO-800, 8MP downscaled
iPad 4, ISO-250, 5MP 1:1
HTC One, exposure 1/60 ISO-104, 1:1
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-125, 1:1
If a good light source is nearby, the camera will choose a very low ISO + extreme shutter speed and those noise free slightly smudgy results will appear again, colors are way off on the One X meanwhile it's a perfect shot from the HTC One
HTC One, exposure 1/60 ISO-104
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-125
One last time, macro, light source away, resulting in noisy high ISO
HTC One, exposure 1/10 ISO-1027
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-1000
Download full size HTC One samples
Download full size HTC One X samples
In general I found the camera an amazing performer in low light, especially when it comes to color accuracy, shutter speed and most important power, those settings are empowering but as a side effect it definitely has a learning curve, those expecting point and shoot awe inspiring results might struggle
For the average user much of this photographic power might remain unseen
Last thing to note the camera view finder, shutter, UI and processing speed is absurdly fast, it totally out-dates the already fast One X camera
The front camera is similar to the "full frontal" ultra wide angle camera as the HTC 8x. Shutter speed and viewfinder fps is a lot better than on the 8x, but after reinspecting indoor photos i previously took with my 8x i noticed the quality is indeed reduced on the One.
HTC Zoe:
This is the most fun feature of the HTC camera, lets get to the negatives first, the Zoe trigger is actually just an icon without any label, this alone might keep this feature unseen to many! once you click the icon the shutter button will have a Zoe label over it and it starts caching images, when you click it collects few pre frames and the remaining captures until the red bar runs out.
Once you have a Zoe you can do great things but yet again those abilities are a little hidden, in order to apply sequence shot for example you have to go to edit > enhance,Ii struggled few times to find it since it only appears if it's a Zoe and sometimes I confused its location with edit > effects, either way "sequence shot" and all Zoe abilities like "always smile" are the perfect party camera features, tons of fun if you are using these abilities with a couple of friends or your family
In Zoe capture many options including sharpness controls are actually disabled, I also noticed captured quality can be different than normal capture, for example all my Zoe still shots appear to be the most in lacking contrast
Now for the best Zoe part "highlights" again it's confusing at first since you see those moving zoe thumbnails and a still thumbnail with a play icon, once you press play you realize it's a highlight reel being generated in realtime, I was spending the whole evening with my cousin and wife trying out this phone, when we finally arrived to the highlights part it caught us by surprise, it was video recap of the entire evening with the neat default "vega" theme, it was hilarious seeing all our tests, videos, zoes, expressions and beer photos come together, there couldn't be a more perfect "memory capture" of the evening
A word of warning a highlight is not automatically saved and they will change once you capture more content, so if you see something you like hit menu and save in order to keep it as a video, you can also share it to HTC Zoe website, it's wise to clean up your zoe's once your done, if you don't want to overwhelm your camera folder
Sense 5.0, Blinkfeed and Buttons layout:
The new UI is all about less is more, there is much less UI and a lot more functionality, from the get go I changed the app drawer grid from the default 3 columns and i've a set a normal homescreen as my default, although there were few accounts loaded like Facebook, I was not fuzzed by blinkfeed it was left there to the left and harmless, if those feeds have ugly or low res photos expect the phone to greet you with them, so it does what it does and that is providing feeds but it should not be the default homscreen
As for the rest of the UI its just minimalist, clean and a lot more AOSP in terms of cursor and buttons etc, most importantly its so fast and locked triple buffered 60fps JB smooth, so smooth you really don't care about it anymore, you can be busy multitasking, jumping back and forth and the UI will never break a sweat, it's never in your way, after this my One X feels a little "old fashioned"
Not once did I confuse the HTC logo for a button, I was perfectly adapted to the new home button location and double tapping for multi view, in fact I have enjoyed the change
If I was to be picky, I can say I have noticed some fps drops in folders' animation inside the app drawer, otherwise the OS is scorching fast and liquid smooth
Gaming:
update: check the following 3D games reports
3D Games Performance Report Part II>>
3D Games Performance Report Part I>>
As a recap here is the current HTC One GPU situation:
http://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx27&D=HTC+One
in T-Rex offscreen 1080p:
Tegra4 project shield @18fps
554MP4 iPad 4 @16.8fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz OC @18fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 450mhz OC @17fps
Adreno320 s600 SGS4 (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz stock @17ps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 400mhz stock @15fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 400mhz stock @14.8fps
544MP3 Octa SGS4 @12.5fps
Tegra3 HTC One X @4.1fps
in Egypt HD 2.5 offscreen 1080p:
Tegra4 project shield @54.5fps
554MP4 iPad4 @54.4fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz OC @45fps
544MP3 Octa SGS4 @43fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 400mhz stock @41fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 450mhz OC @40.4fps
Adreno320 s600 SGS4 (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz stock @40fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 400mhz stock @37fps
Tegra3 HTC One X @12.5fps
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Also the T-Rex results are reflected in the 3D mark tests
The HTC One is currently lacking the latest Adreno 320 drivers with Open GL ES3.0 support, these drivers require Android 4.2.2. Thankfully HTC and Qualcomm demonstrated then promised these drivers in an upcoming update, which is good sign since few other Adreno 320 s600 devices running on 4.2.2 are achieving better GPU performance
Be sure to check my gameplay videos analysis, the HTC One runs Modern Combat 4 smoothly in native 1080p with full effects engaged
Finally with S600 you need to be aware of thermal throttling so check my [GUIDE] How to easily unleash your HTC One gaming powers ★ root>>
Battery and Temperature:
Throughout my time with the device, I had the brightness cranked up to full, I tested the device heavily for four hours, it was connected to wifi but not mobile networks, there was few accounts in Blinkfeed and most of my tests revolved around the camera, impressively in those non stop full brightness four hours the battery only fell from around 90% to 50%, coming for the One X limited screen on time this is a significant leap
The HTC One metal back plate did get warm, but never hot, it was clearly getting warm but quickly dissipating the heat
IR Remote: Who would say no!
I tried this quickly on my Sony bravia and LG LCD TVs, it worked perfectly, there was only one negative is that it requires you to setup the TV mode first by choosing a limited list of countries and your cable provider, needless to say non of this is supported in my country and all i wanted is to access the remote function, once i skipped through the setup, i chose my TV brands, it quickly downloaded the profiles, worked instantly (and yes I did try a practical joke with this)
Conclusion:
I was left speechless, it's not that the HTC One masters one specific element but it is the global quality of this device as a whole that is mouth watering, there is not one area left out or neglected, the entire abilities of this device combined working in harmony to give you a truly unique, sleek and "next level" experience, it continues the work started by the HTC One X and in the same time renders it obsolete, compared to the early life of the One X where many areas were still unfinished, taking a while to reach it's promise (through both hw and sw revisions), the HTC One is a fully refined out of box experience
After HTC's track record of software improvements on it's flagships of 2012 (X/S/XL) from which the One X was remade, I can only imagine where the One will be a year from now
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Accessories: Official Double Flip Cover, pretty but flimsy
I am angry at this cover, first I never expected to like the color combination but as you can see, it is actually pretty neat
The kickstand concept works perfectly as well, sadly so sadly there is one jarring omission and that is a lock mechanism when the cover is closed, you would imagine with all this metal at the front HTC would have used a magnet to snap the cover to the body once it's closed (like the iPad kickstand cover), sadly it's not the case, the flip is left clumsy and loose
In terms of quality, the clipping parts have a matt finish, these are rigid but have a tender finish meaning they slide easily out and can not do damage to the device, meanwhile the bendable parts have a fake leather finish, the texture is good quality but i found the HTC engraving a little cheap as well as the uneven back side
All in all a great concept, great design especially when it's in kickstand position but for a device with the quality of the HTC One, an "official" cover should do better
Accessories: HTC Media Link HD, an excellent tool but not as sleek
Note I wasn't able to confirm which model but the best part is that it is so easy to setup, just plug it to TV and charger, it will instantly appear on screen, all it takes is a swipe gesture and your UI is onscreen (if you disabled the gesture for multitouch reasons you can immediately enable media link from the settings or notifications menu)
The moment you connect to wifi the device will also alert you about Media Link's presence
I tried it on both the One and One X, Videos and photos are easily played back on your TV in 1080p24, the One was clearly faster than the One X which had a laggier UI due to the 3D launcher and had to pre load 1080p films before they play, the One never had to pre load those videos, they played from the moment you press play, you can also keep playing the video while you continue using your UI
In conclusion it's neat tool however there is a main issue and that is performance, the liquid smooth UI is not reflected on screen, its running at lesser frame rate, so eventually I found it hard to enjoy photo viewing for example and preferred to simply stream them through my PS3
You can also play any game through your media link, i tried RipeTide on both the One X and One but both performed badly even if the resolution was reduced in-game, the game was running liquid smooth on both phones but not on the screen there was also evident compression, I guess it has to do with wifi streaming speed
I'm not sure if this version supports the faster wifi on the HTC One but it's not hard to imagine an updated model will be released sooner or later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you find my work helpful in some of your unanswered questions please hit the thanks button
Don't forget, a lot more info here:
HTC Flagship 2013 - HTC One - Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 - Mega Information Thread>>
Great review hamdir and as detailed as I expected it to be.
Glad to see that you like it and to see the detail on the camera (which is something I don't generally know much about apart from taking standard photos).
Will be adding this to post #2 of the review thread later today
Dude, you are allmost at same level with Brian.
Thank you so much! I'm hoping to get mine in next few weeks (Finland).
review
Good review...thx
Thanks a lot. Awesome review. Only sad thing is how cheap flip case looks. I mean seriously, nillkin and other chinese brands are much cheaper but much better in terms of quality. This should have been better.
Great comparison review, Hamdir. Do you still intend to keep the One X until the launch of One + or your will got weaker with these few hours with the One?
myself11 said:
Great comparison review, Hamdir. Do you still intend to keep the One X until the launch of One + or your will got weaker with these few hours with the One?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already weaker
Just a note I will soon be uploading full scale photos samples from this review as well as my audio recording test
Great review, i wish the buttons weren't visible when the screen is off
DynamicRam said:
Great review, i wish the buttons weren't visible when the screen is off
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This is an incredibly minor nitpick. But I agree with you - that would have been nice.
Great work hamdir, a priviledge to read your post. Now I see why you are a reference across many worldwide technology forums when the subject is HTC
(...) the HTC One is a fully refined out of box experience
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This is something very dear to me, thankfully you pointed it out.
Thanks guys
I have added fill size video screenshots and photo samples to the review
Wow. That's one hell of a review! :thumbup:
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
updated this part
The front camera is similar to the "full frontal" ultra wide angle camera as the HTC 8x. Shutter speed and viewfinder fps is a lot better than on the 8x, but after reinspecting indoor photos i previously took with my 8x i noticed the quality is indeed reduced on the One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd totally forgot about adding the IR Remote to mine until I read it in here.
Our reviews are a bit too big I think
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
KidCarter93 said:
I'd totally forgot about adding the IR Remote to mine until I read it in here.
Our reviews are a bit too big I think
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like Brian said there is just so much to cover with this device
hamdir said:
like Brian said there is just so much to cover with this device
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Couldn't agree more. When I originally wrote mine, it was much longer than it is now but knew I had to cut it down a bit otherwise I'd use up the 30,000 character limit.
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
KidCarter93 said:
Couldn't agree more. When I originally wrote mine, it was much longer than it is now but knew I had to cut it down a bit otherwise I'd use up the 30,000 character limit.
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
Click to expand...
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did you forget to add your review and mine to the second post?
hamdir said:
did you forget to add your review and mine to the second post?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not forgot, I just haven't got around to doing it yet
I'm too lazy at the moment but will defo get it done soon-ish
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
Excellent write-up! You touched on a few things I was wondering about. Thank you and cheers!!
I'm comparing LG G6 , SAMSUNG S8+ and SONY XZ Premium . Both of them are very good , but I don't know which of them has a 10-bit color depth display panel .
Thank you everyone
tenshikurabu said:
I'm comparing LG G6 , SAMSUNG S8+ and SONY XZ Premium . Both of them are very good , but I don't know which of them has a 10-bit color depth display panel .
Thank you everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I found on the net:
S8/S8+: They have a Mobile HDR premium display (whose certification states that the color depth must be 10 bit)
G6: It has an HDR10 (so 10 bit of color depth) and dolby vision display
XzP: HDR10 but no dolby vision
Hope it helps =)
Killua96 said:
This is what I found on the net:
S8/S8+: They have a Mobile HDR premium display (whose certification states that the color depth must be 10 bit)
G6: It has an HDR10 (so 10 bit of color depth) and dolby vision display
XzP: HDR10 but no dolby vision
Hope it helps =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for your help, I think I will enjoy HDR videos on my new smartphone
OP see how easy it is to find stuff on Google......
rubiicon59 said:
OP see how easy it is to find stuff on Google......
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Click to collapse
In some pages , I saw members talking about it has 10-bit panel or not
Interesting, Smart question.
before answering your question let me point out that if you like to settle with inaccurate/incorrect answers then just settle with the answer above or stuff you find after googling that question.
I also like to point out the reason why this question is smart and interesting mainly because for some reason, bit depth related questions are not answered properly and there is a huge misunderstanding because of false information and details that you get on the internet or false advertising as some manufacturers falsely-advertised their panels as "10 Bit displays" (esp. if you're buying a monitor, be aware of these scams , pay attention to the details like the model and do a dedicated research on the subject)
Let's get into your question
Oh man, op, I'll be honest with you, you got yourself in a deep, deep vortex because the answer to that question packs a lot of information, I hope you read everything patiently because I didn't write this article-like long reply for nothing but educational purposes
First of all there is no such thing as "10/8 bit display" or "10/8 bit panel", 10 bit display likely doesn't exist and 8 bit display is atari content, 10 bit display is what you meant/referred to is likely the "bits per channel" which isn't the number you're looking for, as some panels could have 8bpc, but can have more subpixels which result in higher bitdepth than 24 bit (like rgbw, 8 bits for channel in rgbw allows true 32bit panel resulting in more colors/shades generated due to additional channel and additional data or 8 bits stored for that channel, plus the color combining by the usage of the additional subpixel to control each shade, in this case adjusting the saturation of the white subpixel, in a colored/white & black gradient testing these panels will subjectively and objectively give you the same color output and the same wavelengths) channels here stands for the subpixel, the actual bit depth of the display is the bit depth of it's pixel, which is 3 (likely 3, because many pixels use RGB color palettes/segments, but can differ as mentioned above) x bits per channel
So the formula of the panel's bit depth is generally like this :
No. Of colored subpixels X no. of bits per channel(subpixel or pixel)
Example: a given panel has RGB component, for each channel (subpixel) it stores 8 bits, the total bit depth of the display equals that number x 3 which equals 24 bit, also known as true color, more informations about the subject can be found here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_depth
(Notice the "do not confuse with bpc" line, also notice that higher bitdepth than 24 bit or "true color" is also known as "deep color")
But manufacturers, oh they beg to differ, and will always publish the bit per channel instead of the actual bitdepth of the display just because they feel that their rgb display is unique for achieving 30 bit depth or bit depths more than 24 without the need for extra subpixel and honestly they have all the right to do it.
What you are looking for: whether LG G6/Sony xperia xz premium/galaxy note 7/galaxy s8 have 30/32 bit displays.
The answer: not definitive.
There is no definitive answer for your question, there aren't any websites on the internet who measure the actual output by determining each color's wavelength by using a spectrophotometer to determine that there are actual different shades in a gradient/artifact testing, plus spectrophotometers are expensive and not anyone is able to get an accurate tool.
Add the fact that standards like HDR by the UHD alliance or Dolby vision aren't trustworthy at all, many displays had bit depth more than 24 and had amazing contrast ratios, yet they didn't have the hdr standard because they are older than the standard itself, and many panels are given HDR standards or dolby vision, despite not having deep color (30 bit or more) most likely, these smartphones mentioned above, because all of them are listed to have "24 bit " instead of "30 bit" color on websites like gsmarena and devicespecifications and because deep color is really expensive, if you want deep color start searching from laptops and don't go below
How to test:
If you're lazy like most of us humans, grab these videos
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B68jIlCvW85gWFp0NVUwTFdTNFE/view
Extract them and run them both, see the difference in gradient like stepping in the lower side and no stepping in the upperside of both vids? Cool, enjoy your deep color panel
Also on how to make yourself a test without getting wavelength detectors/spectrophotometer (for devs and designers):
Do a gradient testing by making a .png, one for deep color, consisting of many rows side by side of close of sequential colors/grey tones grabbed from the 30bit colorspace and another one for 24 bit in the same way, take these .pngs and make an mp4 out of them or just place them one atop of another, voila! You made the test yourself
I hope you have been educated and benefited by this response, but I'd like to hear a response from you too after you test the phone yourself
So after testing my mi8 i can see clear the difference on 8 and 10 bit gradient. So it is 10bit?
On my acer tablet i see only the 8 bit(the same top and bottom).
***(Update: I've found a fix! Being in stock room and installing Ainur Sauron mk ii.ii has improved the frequency response of the phone. The volume is same as before (but it's still adequate), so PowerAmp/Firefox/VLC is still much louder. But now the sound signature is similar. No more pathetically weak bass and overly bright sound!
BTW, Ainur Sauron doesn't work on LineageOS, RRemix, etc. I think Ron's made with Shivam Kumar Jha's trees are incompatible with Sauron. So I'm using stock 318)
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has noticed how badly Asus has tuned the audio of this phone (esp. through the 3.5mm jack).
The Snapdragon 636's SoC is capable of providing pretty decent audio quality. But in the ZMPM1 only the sound through a select few apps (Firefox, PowerAmp with hires 24bit + 88/176/352/384khz audio, VLC, etc) is good. The sound from almost all other apps and audio mods like V4a is pretty bad.
For example, the sound produced by Firefox when playing YT videos is quite full and rich and has a seemingly accurate and linear frequency response. The same video when played through the YT app not only has much less volume, but also has a completely different sound signature with reduced bass, harsh treble, and an overall tinny and compressed feeling. (BTW, it's definitely the phone and not my headphones/IEMs)
Now in previous phones I've experienced that Firefox's audio is not changed by mods such as V4a or other equalizers. This makes me believe that Asus has, for some reason, purposely worsened the sound (perhaps due to some issue with the amp? IDK)
So is there any way to revert/override/bypass the changes made by Asus in all apps? So far I've tried the following-
1. Used Lineage Os 15.1 by Shivam Kumar Jha. It boosts the volume so there's no difference in volume between the good and bad sound, but the sound is still bass-lacking and tinny in most apps while full and rich in Firefox.
2. Used Ainur Sauron mk ii - Didn't fix it.
3. Used V4a- Not only did it not fix it, but installing the V4a driver means audio is now capped at 48khz and 16bit, so even PowerAmp hires breaks.
4. Other equalizers- doesn't really remedy the problem, only masks it somewhat (that too pretty badly).
So is there some way to maybe modify the audio effects or mixer paths files to remove this? Or is this just baked into the device in such a way that it's not fixable? I hate being limited to Firefox for YouTube and PowerAmp hires for local audio, and not being able to use viperDDC/IRS for headphone compensation makes things worse. So any help would be very much appreciated.
For me with V4A sound is great by using Convoler/IRS mod, and some tweaks in compatible mode.
GryTEcHoG said:
For me with V4A sound is great by using Convoler/IRS mod, and some tweaks in compatible mode.
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V4a just changes the sound, it doesn't improve it. And with it's 48khz 16bit limit even PowerAmp's hi res output becomes average quality.
Even if you neutralize the frequency curve with v4a, it can never improve the slightly garbled and compressed nature of the Zenphone's sound. Instrument separation cleraly suffers because of it.
SD008 said:
V4a just changes the sound, it doesn't improve it. And with it's 48khz 16bit limit even PowerAmp's hi res output becomes average quality.
Even if you neutralize the frequency curve with v4a, it can never improve the slightly garbled and compressed nature of the Zenphone's sound. Instrument separation cleraly suffers because of it.
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I see. Can you give me an audio sample file where you could see diff clearly ? So i can test it our myself with with and without v4a, and might be able to figure out.
Thanks
man thanks for this post, i am raising this issue in asus offical forum and xda alos, but mostly people are only worried about the camera quality and gaming perfomance, nobody even in youtube reviews talked abut worst sound quality of this phone, i dont know why.
i even raised service request with Asus but they did not provide any solution, more and more developer need to fix in future custom rom. other else this phone is total waste, i am movie and music loving guy, the movie sound is terrible from earpone jack, in night when i want to watch movie and listen to music , i cant do it, because its not pleasant,
the speaker is good, but 3.5 jack sound is very very bad, i request all rom developer please fix this in your custom rom, as asus is not listening
There are kernel avaible so may there is a way to enhance or tweak the sound from that level, please do it, if i had know that this is the issue, i would have gone for RN5 Pro phone, instead of this one, i need a great experience, even phone selling at 5000 have clear and loud sound i had Lenovo A6000 Plus, which was almost half of this phones price, but man the sound was so great
Asus Please fix this in updates, other else this is waste, not only sound, there are many more bugs in this phone, Asus just rushed this half backed phone to market, the phone should be balance of Hardware and Software, only having good hardware at competitive price is not enough, you need to have a great software to use the hardware properly, asus missed onthis one
even the LED notification and front flash is of cheap quality, even in dark night or dark room LED notification does not glow enough why Asus why
Camera software is patheric, but thanks to some mod, now we can use Google camera, i will use it for few months and then sell it, because its not pleasant to use due to many software issue and some cheap parts used by Asus.
Update: Using Ainur Sauron while on the stock room and enabling FMAS drivers using the Sauron useroptions file improved the sound (I think, or it just might be me slowly losing my mind, lol). I've also increased the volume of hphl and hphr in vendor/etc/mixer_paths.xml to 12, that may or may not have had something to do with it. The volume is still much lower than PowerAmp/Firefox, but the sound signature seems to be more neutral. Using splitscreen it seems that Firefox @ volume 6 and YouTube app @ volume 10 sound almost identical, and both of these sound pretty similar to an ancient s4 (which has a pretty linear frequency response).
I received my phone a about a week ago and I agree, coming from my old oneplus one the audio was lacking depth, it had recessed vocals with high interfering in between, and shrill highs. After carefully listening many flac and other audio files back and forth on my old phone and Asus, I came to the conclusion that the entire audio output spectrum of zenfone max pro m1 is shifted towards the right, which explains all the aforementioned issues. I have posted the same on zentalk and I really hope that this issue gets fixed soon. Too bad very few people look for decent audio quality in budget segment otherwise this wouldn't have been an issue at the first place.
Those that are still facing this problem, I stock room+Ainur Sauron. I've updated the OP with some relevant info.
This sounds great. Don't know why all people are complaining about 3.5 mm jack sound. I can hear each and every note of all songs same as I can on my pc. I've tried a lot of different earphones/headphones (2 sennheiser, 1 flipkart smart buy in ear, 1 Sony (over Ear) don't know the model was my friend's, 1 boat and 1 Philips. All sounded different but were very clear and fine.
SD008 said:
Update: Using Ainur Sauron while on the stock room and enabling FMAS drivers using the Sauron useroptions file improved the sound (I think, or it just might be me slowly losing my mind, lol). I've also increased the volume of hphl and hphr in vendor/etc/mixer_paths.xml to 12, that may or may not have had something to do with it. The volume is still much lower than PowerAmp/Firefox, but the sound signature seems to be more neutral. Using splitscreen it seems that Firefox @ volume 6 and YouTube app @ volume 10 sound almost identical, and both of these sound pretty similar to an ancient s4 (which has a pretty linear frequency response).
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How to enable 'FMAS drivers using sauron useroptions'... I have installed Ainur sauron
So after all these days I've found the perfect fix for speaker and headset audio quality improvement, install viper4android xHiFi from magisk and tweak the setting to your taste. the best part is all these changes are global, so unlike music FX or similar apps, these effects will not be limited to music players. I was also able to remove the sharp audio output from earphones and the loudspeaker using the EQ within viper. The addon also processed bluetooth audio but I haven't tested it yet.
Bro ,i am on the same boat ,but got good quality output using vlc player with audio output set to Open SL ES..Do it ,live with it till we get an update from ASUS.
Since i Love music i flashed a custom rom and now i'm enjoying music as i use to. Shane on Asus for ****ing up the audio on the device
Easiest way if you don't want to root
Just install vidmate and listen songs in it.
Try it just once.